Thursday, September 28, 2017

Back in 2014 I wrote two posts trying to look into what the Bible has to say about abortion (here and here). Since then it's something I've continued to think a lot about and I've come to believe this issue has some important facets that I don't often hear acknowledged. I'm sharing them here as much to have my thoughts recorded for the future as anything else, but hopefully they will also be of interest to some of my readers :-)

The facets I'm thinking of are:

The main thing people who are pro-life or pro-choice seem to disagree on
is the status of the foetus. One group says it's a baby, the other says
it's a piece of tissue. That difference is crucial, as it determines
whether an abortion is murder or the removal of unwanted tissue. Something I think is often missed in 'debates' about abortion is that no one actually thinks killing babies is OK or that removing
unwanted tissue is evil. People on different sides of this issue disagree about what is going on, not about ethics per se.

Very few people that I've encountered (either in person or online) actually think the foetus is either
a baby or a piece of tissue. This comes out in the ways they speak and act. Pro-choice people often talk about
abortion being a difficult choice (like is being done here, for example) in a way that they would never talk
about an appendectomy. Pro-life people rarely obstruct abortions with the same dedication people have shown at school shootings. Those aren't perfect comparators (your infected appendix is likely to kill you in a way that your foetus isn't; abortion is state-sanctioned and ongoing in a way that school shootings are not), but I still think they're revealing. I think they show that, in reality, the abortion 'debate' is much less polarised than we think. The majority of the population seem to think that the foetus is some
kind of 'proto-human', even if some individuals tend more towards the
'proto' and others toward the 'human'.

Science doesn't have anything to say on the status of the foetus. It's
just not the kind of question science can answer. It is, of course,
living human tissue, but so is your appendix. It can, of course, develop
into a human given the right conditions, but so can an ovum or even a
skin cell, depending on how broadly you wish to define 'the right
conditions'. It isn't, of course, able to survive on its own, but neither can a new-born baby or even a toddler. Although people on both sides of the 'debate' claim that science is on their side, this question of the status of the foetus is something we need to figure out
philosophically. Science just doesn't deal with this kind of question. (And, as my previous posts showed, I don't think the Bible is very helpful with this either: it's pretty clear on the importance of preserving life, but has little or nothing to say on where it starts.)

Saturday, September 23, 2017

In recent weeks I've been feeling like God wants me to take new steps in being a 'living sacrifice', a term Paul used in his letter to the Roman Christians that we have recorded in the New Testament:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may
discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Antipasto platter for afternoon tea :-) I've done this a few times recently and it's very yummy! Home-made 'sun'-dried tomatoes, tasty cheese and kalamata olives.

My moth orchid is flowering some more! The left-most flower has been there a while, but the other two opened in the last couple of days and there are two more buds fattening up.

On the weekend we went on our first wheelchair bike outing in forever (I think since before Martin hurt his back maybe three years ago!). The bike itself needs a bit of attention, but it was so much fun to be out and about like this again :-)

Sunday, September 3, 2017

A few weeks ago I listened to an interview with Jennifer Brea on living with CFS,* in which she mentioned the ongoing grief of living with chronic illness. Again and again things don't happen in your life that do happen to the well people around you, so again and again you find yourself grieving new losses.

* the interview's well worth a listen, and what I'm discussing here is only a tiny part of it.

I really resonated with that, but I'm not so sure that was a good thing! Ever since I've found myself ever-so-much-more aware of the background grief I think I always live with, and the thing that's hitting me the most right now is that I'm not part of anyone's world.

I don't mean no one cares about me - I know lots of people do! - but almost no one contacts me, people almost never turn to me when they're wanting to talk something through with someone, and certainly no one thinks of me when they're wondering who they could do something fun with.